Christian Bale is known for his various iconic roles. However, the one that shines out the most will be his work with Christopher Nolan as Batman in the Dark Knight Trilogy. The actor loved portraying Bruce Wayne and was ready to even be typed cast for the role just so he could continue playing Gotham’s hero for as long as possible.
Both Nolan and Bale have had a long history and have worked with each other on multiple movies. Although, the actor once did doubt whether or not the producer would be able to look past his ability to bring Batman to life and give him the opportunity to take up more roles.
Christian Bale Had To Convince Christopher Nolan To Get A Part In The Prestige
Christian Bale was ecstatic to become Batman and wanted to continue playing him for as long as time would allow. He brought to life the trilogy that gained massive success and became one of the most iconic Batman movies of all time. However, when he stepped away from the role to explore more areas where his talents could shine, he was once again met with Christopher Nolan.
“Chris didn’t actually come to me with this. I actually read the script and I called him up and said, ‘I want in. I like Borden. I can really nail this character.’ You know, the question was could he see me as anything other than Bruce Wayne?”
The actor had to convince Nolan so he would let Bale play one of the two leads in The Prestige. Lucky for him, the producer was highly fond of the American Psycho actor and understood that his talent was not one that could be missed. So it was no doubt that he would step out of the shadows of Batman and become an actor of his skills.
Christian Bale Was Ready To Be Batman Forever
Christian Bale was more than ready to be typecast and be seen only as Batman because of how much he loved playing the Caped Crusader. It can be very easy for actors to be limited to the roles that become extremely famous and hence not allowing them to expand their talent further.
“I was like, ‘Ah, maybe I’m going to be forced to go do something different.’ And maybe this f***ing thing [acting] that I got forced into doing as a kid that I didn’t f***ing want to do in the first place, I’m out. And I’m free. And then it didn’t happen.”
In Bale’s case, it was the complete opposite. The actor was able to display his full potential by taking up roles completely separate from that of Bruce Wayne’s character. He was able to explore other roles that were nowhere near what the public was used to seeing him as. This range allowed him to not be typecast and limited to only one role for the rest of his career.
Source: GQ
